When a consumer is using a commercial website to make a purchase, typically, the consumer only has the payment options presented by the merchant. These payment options may include, for example, Visa, MasterCard, American Express, PayPal or other options presented by the merchant. Points (also known as Rewards, or other card-based non-monetary currencies), which are managed by card-issuing banks, represent a non-monetary currency that can be redeemed for goods or services, typically, merchandise or travel. Today this redemption takes place on a financial institution's website, or at merchants that have integrated into the financial institution's systems to access a consumer's points account. Additionally, today a consumer can only use a payment option that they have available at the moment of the transaction, or one that the merchant offers them.
These and other drawbacks exist.